


Plan X-2

by anastasiaclaire



Category: Original Work
Genre: Other, just a piece of writing i decided to do oops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 13:04:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20046499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anastasiaclaire/pseuds/anastasiaclaire
Summary: apocalyptic shenanigans ensue





	1. Chapter 1

“At some point you get tired of treating yourself like shit! Tired of being dragged through the mud even if it’s YOU pulling yourself by your ankles. I want a break. Something normal. Something- something that I’ll remember in 12 hours time.” Julia exhaled the words as if they were being forced from her.  
Jack’s plastered on smile faded and his face paled, each and every word she said hitting him like a brick to the same tempo as his racing heartbeat; the realization that she had changed for the better and he was too far gone to do the same hit him harder than any physical blow he could ever receive. It crashed against him like he wished she would, but knew that with her new-found resolve that she wouldn’t.  
He opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was the beginning of a word before he fell completely silent for a good two minutes. Within those two minutes the pair just sat, avoiding eye-contact, holding their breath. Jack broke the silence with a dry chuckle, “Oh come on, Jules.” he drawled. “Sure you’re saying all this now but in two hours you know that you’ll be back here, begging me to come pick you up so we can have a drink and probably end up doing something extremely destructive. This isn’t the profession we wanted but it’s getting us somewhere, can’t you see? Julia this is our cycle, it’s who we are and it’s painfully, blissfully unavoidable.”  
Julia’s eyes were trained on him as he spoke and he was halfway right, her self-destructive habits were absolutely screaming for her to give it up. Somehow she doubted she could change, that she could just ignore the fact they were so close to having all they wanted, what they worked for and occasionally, with a few too many drinks, worked against. One step forward and a half-step back; but hey, they were getting there and enjoying the trip.  
Julia pinched the bridge of her nose and her eyes screwed shut, “Do you really want to stop me? I mean, do you seriously want me to be stuck in this life. We’re unstable, our business, our relationship- all of it. Don’t you want to get out? Be healthy. Have experiences that don’t involve skipping work, drinking until we’re numb and having all our nights end the same way- avoiding getting caught doing whatever it is that we so childishly choose to be amusing that day, plus-”  
Cutting her off, Jack shook his head, “That’s how we are, it is who we are. Would you really have it any other way? Don’t you want to crash and burn with me? The fun we have isn’t childish it’s-”

Now it was Julia’s turn to cut him off, and roughly so, “The Likan HyperSport that we stole for no other reason than the entire bottle of gray goose and a joy ride? Yes, that was such a grown-up decision. Just like every other one we make.” She shot back at him, arching an eyebrow and it was at that point he couldn’t possibly try to fight her on this. She was right ant he knew it. Julia would leave, and he would stay. That’s how it was.  
”So I’ll just continue the work on my own?” He asked quietly, his voice reflecting that he had lost everything which made the woman in front of him flinch before answering with a near-silent ‘yes’.  
Just like that, Julia had scooped her bag up and headed out the door. No kiss goodbye- hell, no verbal goodbye. It was over just like that and to Jack it looked like this is just how he would have to play. No, of course this didn’t mean they were over; it just signaled the start of a new game. Because despite the finality in her words, she made sure he could see his blueprints and plans sticking out of her bag as she walked away; and the pained smile that rested on his face was unavoidable. “Here we go.” He said to himself, his tone shockingly light-hearted considering what had just happened. “Plan x-2.”


	2. Chapter 2

Jack wasn’t ever really okay with what they did. He followed Julia around, helped and gave in some input on small tweaks they could do to help the general process of their work. Tweaks to the process meaning insight into food, comfort and how to handle their work as a whole. How to hide, how to talk, how to avoid ever getting caught or ever having a revolt on their hands. Things that were necessary to think about when dealing in human DNA testing. Specifically, alteration and cloning of said DNA.  
His workspace was a medium sized room, with a desk and windowed ‘cages’ and a few tanks. Lifeless or dormant bodies filled the majority of the tanks, and the cages held the live ones. They didn’t speak, and they weren’t all that intelligent, but something about having to work around them made Jack extremely guilty and uncomfortable; something Julia never struggled with evidently.  
He made his way to his desk after arriving from the coffee shop, hoping to God that she at least left the copies; and when he found that she did he sighed in relief. “Good.” He mumbled out loud as he practically fell back into his chair. He would need to start on their new model, a being which would be fully capable and intelligent, according to Julia and her associates.  
In all honesty, he wished he could do what Julia was doing; getting away, getting a better life, being okay and healthy for once. Someone had to finish their work though. Someone had to continue, because knowing Julia she would change her mind within a week and want to resume work. For now he would just ‘hold down the fort’, so to speak.  
Days, more days, and then weeks past since Jack had last heard from Julia, and the project was going just fine. They had started work on a subject just a few days ago and it seemed to be progressing well. In the middle of a test is when he finally got a call from her, the ringtone which was set to the song ‘Can’t take my eyes off of you’ by Frank Sinatra. Jack immediately dropped his pen to answer.  
“Hello?” He said into the phone, feigning irritation to cover up the relief on his voice.  
“Yeah, Jack?” Julie replied, pausing for a few seconds before pressing on, “Listen, I’m on my way to the lab but I’m stopping by the store, anything you need?”  
Jack almost couldn’t believe what he heard, and the casualty in her voice infuriated him, but he calmly responded with a “No.” Giving it a few seconds and when she didn’t reply, obviously waiting for something more from him, he sighed. “Door’s unlocked, security hasn’t even arrived yet and I told them if you came back to just let you in anyway.” He explained.  
“Great, see you there, then.” Julia concluded before hanging up, leaving Jack on the dead line which he couldn’t bring himself to hang up on. He just listened to the steady beep for a while before coming to his senses and hanging up the phone on his end. He glanced around the lab and immediately began frantically picking some things up that he had left a mess all about the lab, knowing that would be the first thing she mentioned when she arrived. Which was something he’d rather avoid.  
When she arrived, he greeted her with a kiss to her cheek, condescendingly pulling a chair back and making a gesture for her to sit. "I started our plans. X-2, the new model. It's been going really good so far." He explained and Julia nodded, not saying anything, so Jack continued. "Vitals are good, eyes are responsive, and the subject seems to be gaining consciousness.”  
"Good enough for me. Time to accelerate the process. I have some buyers who want their model by next month.” Julia said shortly, standing back up and nodding toward the biggest tank in the room , which was where they held the newest model. “We’ll need a name.”  
Most of the time when Julie and Jack were together at the lab, they may as well have been there alone. The two didn’t speak to each other much; they were too engrossed in their work. Lately, though, they had started idly chatting with each other as they went about doing their work, joking around, tossing papers across the office and laughing like they hadn’t had a fight in their life. This was probably because of how well their new model- now named Alex, was progressing; the end was in sight. They could see the light at the end of the tunnel, which grew brighter with every day counting down to the date they would sell Alex.  
However, that tunnel quickly caved in.  
A week before the due date, Jack stopped by the room they held Alex in to check in, and well, he was gone. Jack quickly rushed back out and he began to notice that all the other previously deserted bodies were full of life, completely coherent and moving around. His eyes were blown wide as me moved slowly toward his desk, looking between all of the cages and fumbling for his phone, dialing Julia’s number.  
When she answered, he breathlessly spoke. “Offices, now.” Before hanging up immediately and walking toward one of the cages, examining it. Trying to figure out what provoked this change.  
The option that maybe with Alex’s escape, his consciousness spread throughout all the others was in the back of his mind, but he didn’t want to think about that for too long- he did pull the collar of his shirt up around his mouth in case it might be airborn.  
When Julia arrived she noticed right away, and taking note of his shirt, she did the same. “What the hell happened here?” She asked, looking around the room.  
“Alex is gone, these ones woke up, Julie he’s gone.” He said as if he didn’t believe it himself.  
Julia shook her head, stumbling back slightly before turning around, heading out the door. “We need to find him, now. Now. Come on, Jack.” She snapped in her rush, letting her collar drop and grabbing her purse before rushing out the door, she wasn’t sure where they would look but she knew they needed to.  
When they stepped out of the building, horror bubbled up in both of them. There seemed to be a trail of people down the street and sidewalk, acting just as the bodies in the cages did. The ones unaffected looked on, backed away. The loved ones of the affected were trying to speak to them, get them to snap out of it, do something. They couldn’t. “Oh my God.” Julie muttered and Jack nodded. A minute more of taking in the scene passed before Jack slowly leaned on the car, pinching the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache, his eyes were losing focus by the second and he coughed out a breath. “Jules, I don’t feel too hot.” He slurred, before everything went black. He was gone, along with Julia’s world- and the worlds of everyone else- as they knew them. The time for plans was over, this was unavoidable. Julia had watched enough movies to know that this wasn’t a plan anymore. This was survival.


End file.
